You asked, Ken answers ...

There are eight of us on a safety committee, and we are supposed to make recommendations to make the worksite safer. One member of the committee, not the chairman, has taken it upon himself to send recommendations to management under the name of the committee, even though the committee never agreed to them. We have all spoken to him about this, but you never know what he is going to do next. What can we do?

It is ironic that a safety committee would have a loose cannon. Before he launches any more messages under the committee's name, it is time to do more than talk to him about this. All of you have done this already, and yet the messages fly.

The next step needs to be taken by the chairperson. In a word, he or she needs to sit down with the self-appointed messenger and explain the facts of committee life. In a word, if this employee is planning on remaining on the committee, he cannot be unilaterally drafting up recommendations under the committee's name and sending them to management.

He can certainly write recommendations and submit them to the committee itself, but that is where they must stop until the group has made its decisions. He should clearly understand that his current behavior is disruptive, distracting, and interfering with the mission, performance, and objectives of the committee.

He also needs to understand that if he sends any more of these recommendations to management, the committee will send a recommendation to management that he be removed.

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